Deep divisions

The recent Oxfam report talks a about the widening income disparity across the globe. The regressive tax system, which is tilted in favour of the rich, has widened the rich-poor gap. Corporations and wealthy people enjoy tax exemptions and waivers, while the poor pay tax on every drop of water they consume. The report has pointed out that in many countries public projects are underfunded. It suggests that adding half a percent to taxes on the wealth of the world’s richest one percent is likely to raise more than enough money to educate 262 million children. It can even provide healthcare to around 3.3 million people. However, taxes on the rich are being reduced in wealthy nations and barely implemented at all in the developing world. Tax rates for corporations in rich countries fell from 62 percent in 1970 to 38 percent in 2013, with the average rate in poor nations currently at 28 percent.

The report is an eye-opener. The rich became richer by about 12 percent last year at $2.5 billion a day; the poor 3.8 billion people globally became poorer by 11 percent. Now 26 rich people own as much wealth as half of the poor around the globe. It seems that this world is only for the rich.

Nikhat Shaheen

Rawalpindi